1. Field
The present disclosure relates to an apparatus, a method, and a computer readable recording medium for identifying an access network of a terminal, and more particularly, to an apparatus, a method, and a computer readable recording medium capable of identifying and classifying various kinds of networks accessed by the terminals to communicate with a server.
2. Discussion of the Background
At present rapid development to a wireless mobile communication technology beyond wired communication has been made and led to a diffusion of the Internet. Users can search for information on the Internet through a portable terminal such as a cellular phone, a personal digital assistant, a handheld computer, or the like, regardless of time or location.
Many users have replaced general cellular phones with the smart phones. The smart phone, which is an intelligent cellular phone having computer support functions added to the cellular phone, has a personal digital assistant (PDA) function, an Internet function, a moving picture reproducing function, and the like, added thereto while satisfying cellular phone functions. The smart phone can also include various input schemes and touch screens to provide an interface that is more convenient for use. In addition, as the smart phone supports a wireless Internet function, it can also access the Internet and perform functions of a general personal computer (PC), such as an E-mail function, a web browsing function, a fax function, a banking function, a game function, and the like. The smart phone typically includes a standardized operating system (OS) or a dedicated operating system to implement various functions.
As described above, as implementation of various functions has been enabled through various portable terminals such as the smart phone, and the like, various dedicated application programs and contents driven to a user terminal have also been developed.
Additionally, various dedicated application programs implemented in the portable terminal need high-speed network traffic. These application programs transmit and receive a large amount of data in a short time. Therefore, in driving the application program in the portable terminal, a quality problem of the network becomes an important issue, and whether or not a service may be smoothly provided may be determined according to what kind of network is used.
For example, when an application program executed in the portable terminal uses a network according to the third generation mobile communication scheme (that is, a network in the 3G scheme), a smooth traffic speed is not supplied and it is difficult to provide an appropriate service. However, when an application program executed in the portable terminal accesses a network providing relatively stable and high speed data communication, such as Wi-Fi, or the like, a service may be smoothly provided. In addition, according to a kind of network, when the network is in the 3G scheme, an additional cost may be added according to a usage of the network. Therefore, it is important for the portable terminal to identify an access network and inform a user that the additional cost may be generated.
FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate a guide message related to a kind of access network in a general portable terminal. Referring to FIG. 1A, when a specific application program is executed in a portable terminal 100, when an executed application program needs a large amount of network traffic, the portable terminal 100 may inform a user that the executed application program needs a large amount of network traffic and notify the user that an additional cost may be incurred. For example, the portable terminal may display texts such as ‘A connection is made in a 3G scheme. A wireless data fee may be incurred’, or the like, to allow the user to determine whether or not a corresponding program will be continuously executed.
In addition, referring to FIG. 1B, when the user intends to access a network that does not ensure a stable and high transmission speed to execute a specific application program, the portable terminal notifies the user to limit provision of a corresponding service as shown in FIG. 1B. For example, in order to view a television broadcast, a significantly large amount of traffic and a stable and high transmission speed are needed. Therefore, generally, the corresponding service may not be smoothly provided through a 3G network and may be smoothly provided only when the portable terminal accesses a Wi-Fi network. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 1B, the portable terminal may display texts such as ‘Please note that a television sport broadcasting is supported only in a Wi-Fi state for uninterrupted viewing’, or the like, to induce access to the Wi-Fi network.
As described above, in order to recognize a charging problem and network quality according to the use of the 3G network, whether the user terminal (that is, the portable terminal) accesses the 3G network or the Wi-Fi network should be recognized. That is, it is preferable to inform the user that an additional cost may be incurred due to an access through the 3G network at the time of using a service such as download of a large file, or the like, as shown in FIG. 1A. It is also preferable to inform the user that quality of a service may not be ensured due to speed and stability problems of the 3G network in a streaming service when the quality of the service may not be ensured and limit the service if necessary, as shown in FIG. 1B.
A portable terminal including a specific operating system (for example, iOS, Android, or the like) provides an application programming interface (API) capable of confirming whether the portable terminal is currently accessing the 3G network or the Wi-Fi network.
However, when the portable terminal accesses a webpage providing a web service using its browser, an API informing whether the portable terminal is accessing the 3G network or the Wi-Fi network is not provided in the browser. Therefore, whether the access network of the portable terminal of each user is the 3G network or the Wi-Fi network needs to be recognized at a server side.
As described above, as one of methods of confirming whether or not the portable terminal of the user is using the 3G network at the server side, the server may distinguish is whether he/she is accessing and using the 3G network or the Wi-Fi network based on an Internet Protocol (IP) address through which the user accesses the network.
That is, according to the related art, the server receives a list of specific IP addresses allocated for the 3G network from an operator providing the 3G network and compares the list of the IP addresses with an IP address of the portable terminal accessing the 3G network, thereby making it possible to confirm whether or not the portable terminal accesses the 3G network. However, in the related art as described above, when the 3G network operator does not provide the list of the IP addresses, a state in which the portable terminal accesses the network may not be identified at all.
In addition, even though the server has received the list of the IP addresses from the 3G network operator, the 3G network operator may often change the list of the allocated IP addresses. In this case, unless the server receives the updated list of the IP addresses from the 3G network operator immediately, it is likely that an error in identifying whether or not the user has accessed the 3G network will occur.
Furthermore, when the server depends on the list of the IP addresses received from the 3G network operator, since it is likely that the operator will change the list of the IP address allocated to a mobile communication scheme, when a new kind of wireless network such as the 4G network including the Wireless Broadband (WiBro), the long term evolution (LTE), or the like, in addition to the 3G network, is deployed.
In Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2008-0036538 entitled “Apparatus, and Associated Method, by Which to Stored Specific Network Identifiers at a Wireless Device” (applicant: Research in Motion, Limited) has disclosed a method of storing a wireless network identifier and identifying a specific type of wireless network through the wireless network identifier. However, since this identifying method carried out in a portable terminal, a server may not identify an access network of a terminal when the terminal does not notify the server of the access network.